Absolute Peace

Friday, May 5, ‎2023

Good morning, Lord

Verse of the Day: Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.—1 Timothy 4:14-15

Memory of the Month: John 10:27-28

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

Today's reading: 1 KINGS 19-20 LUKE 23:1-25

It is Peace Absolute

It is said continually in our culture that 'everything is relative'. This cannot be so. The peace of God surpasses all understanding. The peace of God cannot be explained or quantified or measured by anything. God's peace cannot be compared to anything because God's peace cannot be viewed in relation to anything.

The definition of absolute: viewed or existing independently and not in relation to other things; not relative or comparative;

--a value which may be viewed without relation to other things.

Jesus said: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27

As Jesus speaks, He speaks to all of us and says to not let our hearts, plural, be troubled. So, Jesus speaks, of course, to us individually-I must not let my heart be troubled. That may seem like a triviality to some, but we must see ourselves as a distinct individual in Christ as we see ourselves in the whole body. We 'all' cannot go before the Lord in our prayer times alone-we are that-alone with God. In that solemnity we must speak for ourselves alone-we must confess our own sin-ask for strength for our own weaknesses. We must seek God with our whole, individual heart.

We cannot know God's peace corporately without knowing His peace personally. We will never know God's peace personally until we are absolutely surrendered to His will in total humility. Being totally surrendered and fully humbled before God has nothing to do with our intelligence or our gifted-ness or power or strength or social status.

All fields are level before God's throne. All have a chance to bring their souls before God in full humility and truth in full surrender. All of us have that chance. All of us, then, have the same chance to experience God's peace, absolute. Anything else is an absence of that peace.

A science teacher once desribed 'cold' as an absence of heat.

Our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:29

When we are consumed by God we have His absolute peace.

'Let not your hearts be troubled' can be otherwise translated to say, "Don't let your heart be stirred up or agitated or disturbed". The only way for us to accomplish this is to be surrenered in total humility before God-anything else is an absence of His fire.

Relax-again-there is hope for all of us to stand in God's peace. Yes, it takes some of us hard work because our heads and hearts are so hardened by the world of sin and my head is as hard as any.

But the Lord says to us all: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

God promises and delivers-just make sure you billing address is the same as delivery address...(don't run from the truth)

...because He loves us...

Father in Heaven,

Forgive me for running from the truth. Forgive me...I want to desire Your fire and walk in Your peace.

Kind and merciful and awesome Father-God.

In the name of Jesus,

Amen